Tadhg Kennelly called for Sydney to rediscover their early season passion and fighting spirit, as he found out first hand the disgruntled reaction towards the Swans' poor performance from their loss to Hawthorn on Sunday.

The 46-point AFL thrashing was Sydney's third loss in four SCG fixtures and dropped them two spots to eighth, just above Richmond on percentage.

Defender Kennelly was conducting a post-recovery session press conference on Monday at Sydney's Clovelly Beach when a passer-by walked behind him and uttered the word "embarrassing."

Rather than take offence, the quick-witted Irishman instantly replied "Exactly right, it was embarrassing, you got that.

"I'm glad to see people in Sydney care, I suppose. It's a start."

The critic, who kept on walking after delivering his succinct and brutal assessment, might even take some credit if Sydney successfully rebounds against struggling North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Kennelly, who has yet to decide whether he will continue his AFL career after this season, said poor performances like the one on Sunday hardened rather than weakened his resolve to keep playing.

"It actually makes it even easier to stay and to enjoy it, because it's the challenging times that make it so good to be a footballer," Kennelly said.

"People walking past like that making those comments make you drive even harder to be better and to prove people wrong all the time.

"I know people are saying it's a reality check for us and that's great. It's something we will work on and we will get that drive back and for myself it really drives me on to try and answer the critics, more than anything else."

Kennelly described the Swans' ball use as "horrible" and said the players were extremely disappointed by their effort against a Hawks outfit he rated "top class.".

"I think we really need to get back to that pride we had (in the wins) against West Coast and Essendon," Kennelly said.

"That fighting spirit is just not there and that passion seems to have left us a bit and we need to get that back very quickly."

He felt key back Heath Grundy should not shoulder all the blame for being unable to control Hawthorn's spearhead Lance Franklin, who kicked 6.6.

"I think it's hard to stand there and say it was Heath Grundy's fault, a lot of the ball was coming in was very, very easy, very quick, very fast flowing," Kennelly said.

"A lot of times I suppose us as a back six should have helped out as well and we didn't.

"Obviously Buddy is a spectacular footballer, we've known that for a long, long time, and his flair.

"It would have been nice to get him playing for the Swans. He'd be a very handy player at the SCG with the big leg that he has."

Kennelly said it would be "massive" for Sydney to win on Saturday after already dropping three home games.

"It makes it harder for us in the long term trying to get into the finals relying on winning away games when you really want to focus in on winning your home games," Kennelly said.

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